Un-bend a cylindrical object (like a ring)

[Deadlyforce]

Is there a way to "unbend" a ring (with thickness) in modeler?

[JeffrySG]

Could you do it in a few steps with a rotate and a falloff? it probably would not be perfect but it might get you part of the way there.

[Deadlyforce]

No it's not working...And I need it to be precise...Obviously there is no tool to reverse a 360° bend operation...I'll be more careful to save a flat version of my object before bending next time...(or store a morph)...

Thanks anyway :)

[Sekhar]

If it's going to be perfectly straight, why bend? Just create a new straight cylinder. If you want to create a morph, you can do the Bkg to Morph thing.

[Nangleator]

If you can't make a morph target that works (because of point order problems,) try this.

Create a low poly tube, straight. This will be your proxy object. Make sure the dimensions are very close to your existing ring. Copy to a new layer. Bend it 360°. Use Background to Morph.

In Layout, parent the high res ring to the low res ring, which is morphed 100%.

Use Soft Body dynamics with no settings, and run that morph from 100% to 0%. Calculate.

FXLink that hires ring. Export the transformed ring. Now it's a morph target.

[Deadlyforce]

Use Soft Body dynamics with no settings, and run that morph from 100% to 0%. Calculate.

FXLink that hires ring. Export the transformed ring. Now it's a morph target.

Could you be more specific about those steps?

I assume I should apply soft body on the proxy object, but I don't understand the purpose of that...
How do I use FXLink (HardLink? MetaLink?) and on which object? or both?

Thanks!

[Nangleator]

Oh, sorry. Guessed incorrectly that you would be familiar with this (ftp://ftp.newtek.com/multimedia/movies/w3dw/mic.mov) technique.